This and That
While Tokyo gets hit with an earthquake a day, here in Chicago I find myself buried under a mountain (slagheap?) of copyediting, recommendation letter writing, etc. I’m trying to find a bit of time each day to work on the last unfinished chapter of my book manuscript on postwar popular music (the chapter on 1970s “New Music”), but it’s slow going.
Over at Japan Focus, R. Taggart Murphy has a fine new article on the current economic crisis and the changes it bodes for U.S., Japan, and China relations as Beijing replaces Tokyo as the primary purchaser of American debt. He writes that “a world in which the primary external support for the US dollar comes from China rather than Japan is going to be very different from that to which policy makers in Washington and Tokyo have become accustomed over the past half century.” It is a moment of truth for Japan, one potentially disastrous but also, Murphy argues, one that might provide the opportunity to rebuild its social contract on a more sustainable basis. In that vein, Murphy expresses hope for the upcoming election.
Meanwhile, this month on his “Ongaku no Tora-san” television show, Southern All Stars leader Kuwata Keisuku has revealed a hitherto unsuspected literary bent. He’s taking the classics of modern Japanese literature and transforming them into the lyrics for pop songs. Among the victims are Natsume Soseki’s Wagahai wa neko de aru (I Am a Cat), Kobayashi Takiji’s Kani Kosen (Cannery Boat), and the following medley, which includes Nakahara Chuya, Dazai Osamu, and Yosano Akiko.
